1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a conflict resolution apparatus for resolving conflict among a plurality of applications, and more particularly, to a conflict resolution apparatus for automatically updating an application conflict rule specifying a conflict condition among the plurality of applications even in the case where a resource provided in the conflict resolution apparatus is changed.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, in an information device such as a mobile phone, a particular application (e.g., a function provided in a phone) is preferentially operated over another application (e.g., a melody player). For example, in the case where an incoming call is received by the mobile phone when melody is being reproduced by the melody player, reproducing of sounds stops, then an incoming call screen is displayed, and a ring tone starts ringing. This is because, in the case of the mobile phone, when the incoming call is received, the incoming call needs to be always given priority of a process and a conversation on the mobile phone needs to be always available. Further, the melody being reproduced at the time the incoming call is received interferes with a user having notification and/or a conversation. Thus, an interface for resolving such conflict among applications has been realized.
Further, in an information device in which applications such as a mobile phone, an audio visual device and a car navigation device are embedded before shipment, in order to resolve the conflict among the applications and provide a user with a further stabilized system, there has been a case where stability of the system is realized by calculating both an available memory size and a required memory size for the applications and by determining the maximum number of applications to be activated.
Further, operation tests have been thoroughly conducted on the applications embedded in such an information device before the shipment, and an application, which may cause the conflict among the applications, has not been initially embedded.
Patent document 1 discloses an information device, which refers to a conflict control table specifying a conflict condition among applications, determines whether or not to execute a new operation, and provides each of the applications with instructions on operation in order to resolve conflict among the applications.    (Patent Document 1) Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-177926
However, for the information device disclosed in patent document 1, the conflict condition among the applications has been provided within the scope of the assumption before shipment, based on types of embedded applications and types of devices provided for the information device. Thus, it has been difficult to change the conflict condition after the shipment even in the case where changing the conflict condition among the applications is advantageous in terms of user convenience since a new device is added, for example.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to resolve the above-described problem, i.e., to provide a conflict resolution apparatus capable of automatically updating an application conflict rule specifying the conflict condition among the applications even in the case where a resource provided for the system is changed by adding a device after the shipment.